Spikotay
by ZombieMonkey
Summary: After getting supplies from the planet Suvian, Commander chakotay gets infused with an spider like insect and Janeway must find it soon. There will be some charactor death in the later chapters, but not major charactors.
1. Chapter 1

_Authors note: Thanks to Holly for the name of the planet. This is something I thought of after having a nightmare about spiders._

_It was allwas happening to Voyager it seemed as they entered orbit around Suvian; a planet which was uninhabited in an unknown part of space in the delta Quadrant. After having a disastrous battle with a race of scavengers known as the Glabites, Voyager was left with practically nothing and when Suvian came into range and their sensors detected a rich stream of Dilithium, they immediately entered orbit and began gathering supplies. _

_This away mission is going as planned_ thought Commander Chakotay as he stepped up to Lieutenant Paris and asked,

"Is everything ready?" Paris nodded his head towards the bundle of crates and replied,

"Yes, all we need to do is transport up than we can get out of here. These damn bugs are killing me." Chakotay smirked as Paris slapped his right arm in annoyance and tapped his combadge.

"Away team to Voyager; ready for transport." The combadge hissed static for a second before Ensign Harry Kim answered over the link,

"Ready for you commander" there was a pause and then the cargo containers disappeared in a shimmer of blue incandescing light. Chakotay watched with satisfaction as they vanished and walked around lost in thought. Little did he know, a blue spider like bug had crawled into his uniform and had taken residence in his collar. Coming back to Paris he nodded his head and they disappeared into the aura as well.

Lieutenant B'Elanna Torres waited patiently while the transporter hummed and deposited the cargo containers onto the pads below. Walking up she checked them and nodded to her staff, who immediately walked up and took them away to Engineering to be emptied and checked fully. Standing at the edge of the platform, she watched and smirked as two columns of blue light came and deposited the commander and Lieutenant. Her smirk left her face as the console suddenly beeped and the Ensign hurried to fix whatever was wrong. Running towards him, B'Elanna asked,

"What's going on?" the Ensign answered with a harried voice as his fingers danced across the console and looked up at her with a scared face,

"I don't know sir; there is something wrong with the transport. There, I think I got it now, reinitializing transport." He started again and tried transporting them up one by one. Tom materialized two seconds later looking appalled by what he saw, and blanched when he stepped off the pad shaking his head and mumbling something about a spider head. B'Elanna came up to him and took his hand feeling him shaking as he sat down in front of the console and put his head in his hands.

"Tom, what's wrong?" B'Elanna asked softly as she kneeled down beside him and looked at his shaking form. The transporter hummed again as she said that and Tom looked up as it stopped and cringed away from it as B'Elanna turned and saw what he was staring at.

"Captain to Transporter room one" she said softly as she watched Chakotay walk off the pad and look at her concerned. She backed away as he came at her and heard the Ensign moan as he fainted on the spot. Commander Chakotay had the head of a spider with eight eyes which were watching her closely and two antennas moving through the air as he/it tried to speak.

B'Elanna froze as the creature stopped in front of her and touched her shoulder.

"Medical emergency in Transporter room one" she squeaked out in a terrified voice. Captain Janeway walked in at that moment and stopped dead as she took in the scene around her. Tom Paris was shaking like a leaf looking at something to his left; the Ensign was on the ground passed out from fright; B'Elanna was standing stock still as a horribly disfigured Chakotay stood touching her shoulder. Walking up to them, Janeway looked closely at Chakotay and said in her command voice,

"What the heck happened here?" turning to the voice B'Elanna answered looking pale,

"Um, it seems we have a problem sir. The transporter had a malfunction which we thought was fixed, but it seems we were seriously wrong. Chakotay has the head of a spider like bug." Nodding Janeway turned to Chakotay and eyed him closely as she stepped up to him and asked in a sharp tone,

"Commander? Can you hear me?" he tilted his head and blinked his eight eyes at her in confusion and tried to say something, but nothing came out but a high pitched squawk. The doc came in then took one look at Chakotay and walked up with the tricorder scanning him closely as he asked,

"What happened to him?" B'Elanna smiled then and proceeded to tell him everything that happened since transport and watched as he nodded in understanding and went to collect Tom who was standing now and took them away by the site to site transport to Sickbay, leaving B'Elanna and Janeway alone with an unconscious Ensign.

The news spread fast around Voyager that Chakotay was now a hideous creature who ate small bugs that the doc replicated for him. It was three hours after the accident when Janeway came into Sickbay and saw him laying on the bio bed antennas twitching angrily and walked up to Doc, who was in his office making notes.

"Okay, how do we change him back to his normal head?" Janeway asked as she leaned against his desk and gave the Doctor her full attention. He stood up and looked out the window staring at Chakotay as he replied with annoyance,

"I can not say at this moment Captain; I found the reason for the mishap though." Her eyebrows quirked up at the word 'mishap' and he continued,

"It seems from what I gathered from Mr. Paris once he calmed down enough for him to speak that there were alien bugs on the planet which looked familiar to Commander Chakotay's head. From what I figured out, Commander Chakotay had a bug hidden in his uniform somewhere and when they transported up to Voyager, the alien DNA mixed with his, causing this mutation." Janeway nodded thoughtfully, thinking about the repercussions of the mutation and possible solutions to fix it. Staring at her commander, she said

"Can we return him to normal?" Doc was quiet for a second and she knew it wasn't good as she turned around and saw his expression. Sitting down again, he turned on his computer screen and accessed Chakotay's current medical logs. Janeway could see how the aliens DNA had coalesced with his, nixing perfectly and knew it would take a scientific miracle to fix it. She turned back to Doc, and said in a serious voice,

"Could the other half of the alien be around the planet somewhere? If we find it, maybe we could put Chakotay together again. Would it be possible?" he looked thoughtfully at the wall for a minute, his holographic brain processing the information and nodded when he came to the same conclusion. Standing up suddenly, he moved out of his office and scanned Chakotay again. Janeway followed watching as his eyebrows rose fully and exclaimed,

"Yes, that could work; he only has half the DNA. According to the readings, his head should be on the alien's body, but that would be scientifically impossible." He rambled on as he ran further tests on Chakotay, who looked at Janeway with his eyes and squawked again. Taking his hand in hers, she leaned up close to Chakotay and whispered,

"Don't worry Chakotay, we'll get you back. Just hang in there okay?" touching her combadge, she called the senior staff and made a meeting to discuss the situation. Walking out of Sickbay, she turned her head and called over her shoulder,

"Keep me informed Doctor."

Twenty minutes later, the senior staff was gathered in the briefing room, listening to Janeway as she got everyone up to speed on what was happening. Tom looked pale as he explained the situation on the planet, with all the bugs and insects.

"There was this insect which looked like a Terran spider down there Captain, its blue and looks almost identical to Chakotay's head." Janeway nodded and replied,

"Where did you see them?" Tom shook his head and answered,

"There everywhere Captain; there was so many different insects down there, we got bit almost every second. I don't know Captain I'm sorry." He hung his head and shuddered thinking of Chakotay's head; he was terrified of spiders, any bugs really and this hit way to close to him. B'Elanna put a hand on his shoulder and squeezed gently, comforting him as Seven began her speech, which was boring to everyone.

"The Borg was on this planet twenty five years ago, searching for a group of drones who crashed there. They discovered nothing of value, but assimilated information about the planet from a freighter two light years away. It was known that the planet was populated by insects which were sentient. I believe if we find their language then we can ask where the insect in question is and get Commander Chakotay back to normal." Everyone looked at her in shock; there was no way an insect could be sentient. Janeway stood up and looked around at her crew feeling like she was about to shout to everyone to think and not speak, but she just answered,

"How could an insect be sentient? I mean, sure we have some races in the Alpha quadrant which are insectoid but no, we don't have any insects that are sentient. No, let's think of another thing, like how do we find this one spider and catch him? I want answers." She turned and looked out the viewport, trying to think of something that would work, but she could only think of one thing. Turning back, she got a sudden idea, but it was stolen by Tuvok, who spoke up and stated,

"I believe the only possible solution to this problem would be to scan the area where Lieutenant Paris and Commander Chakotay were last and see if the spider is near by. The only thing that would cause a problem is catching the insect; they are fast." Nodding, Janeway sat back down and thought of everyone running around with nets, trying to catch a spider among thousands others and laughed. Everyone turned their heads towards her and she waved away the confused expressions and stated,

"Never mind. Okay everyone, let's get started. We'll beam down in shifts, starting from the beam out point and working our way from there. Take care now not to get any insects in your uniforms; check everyone before beaming up and check your equipment too. I want no more accidents like Chakotay's dismissed." Everyone nodded and moved out to begin searching for the 'missing link'.

To be continued


	2. Chapter 2

Title: Spikotay

Rating: PG-13

Codes: C/F, J/M (haven't made my mind up though)

Author: Voyager

Part 2?

Disclaimer: Everything is owned by Paramount, I'm just having some fun; no infringement intended.

Summary: Beaming up to Voyager leaves Chakotay in a sticky situation

Continued from part one

"Captains Personal Log. Commander Chakotay is still lying in sickbay with the head of a spider and there's nothing I can do to help. I have half the crew down on the planet trying to find the one little spider which would help us, but so far nothing. I'm beginning to hate going into sickbay even more now; no one knows about my fears, except Chakotay and there's no way he could help or talk to me, except with a squeaking noise which sounds worse than our Doc when he's singing. It's been two full days now and we're not even close to the half way mark; I'm beginning to think that he may be left like this forever."

Captain Kathryn Janeway sat back from her computer and stretched her tired and sore muscles. Closing her eyes, she sighed as she stood up and went to the replicator for some coffee. Walking over to the couch she sat down and sipped her coffee as she picked up another report, this one a detailed review of the work on the planet. There was nothing in there except the same thing; nothing. Dropping the report on her table, she decided to take a tour of her ship and see how everyone was. So pulling on her jacket she walked out into the empty corridor and down to the turbo lift.

"Deck fifteen" she ordered the lift and leaned back against the wall and watched the lights as they went down. Three minutes later, she stepped out into the darkness and despair of deck fifteen. It was very silent there, everyone who didn't seem to belong in the higher decks was here, doing their jobs and not liking it. Walking slowly, she saw Crewman Telfer; a man who was terrified of everything but was a lot better since his first away mission.

"Crewman" she said gently starling him. He spun around and snapped to attention.

"Captain, I didn't see you there, is there anything I can help you with?" he said shakily. Janeway smiled a warm smile and put a calming hand on his shoulder. He looked scared about something, his eyes darting around and he had beads of sweat around his brow.

"Are you alright? You look more jumpy than usual William." He gave her a small smile and replied looking everywhere but at her,

"I'm fine Captain, thank you for asking." Taking her hand off his shoulder she chuckled and spoke softly,

"Don't worry; I'm only here for a walk. Why are you jumpier then usual?"

"I've been hearing scraping noises around here. I'm just looking for a reasonable explanation to the problem." Nodding her head, she turned around and heard the sound too. A gentle scraping, coming from the bulkheads. Looking at him, she cocked her head and together they followed the sound leading to a Jeffries tube opening. Slowly, she crawled inside and looked into the darkness of the tube seeing nothing. Coming back out again, she straightened her jacket and reported,

"I can't see anything there. I'll get someone down here to check it out later okay?" Telfer nodded and stood at attention as she left and headed for the next floor. She still heard the sound, but didn't think anything of it as she went inside and continued her tour.

_The spider crawled around aimlessly in the ventilation shafts of Voyager searching for something. It dropped into a large space full of strange looking creatures, _no people_ it thought as it scurried around trying not to get stepped on. Somehow it knew where it was going and knew what it needed to do as it crawled into another small space. Jumping up a tube, it stopped and heard voices; the sentient part of the spider knew exactly who they were and started to scrape its leg over a bulk head trying to get their attention. It scurried to a hiding place just as the voices stopped but continued its scraping noise as a head popped into view looking for the noise. 'Kathryn! 'Chakotay tried to shout in its voice, but of course nothing came out as the head went away and their voices continued. He sighed as the voices stopped and footsteps rescinded into the background, knowing he lost his chance to get help, but also knowing there was another way. Scurrying away, he/it went to the end of the tube and tried to find another way to get help._

Down on the planet, things were ending for the night and the team were transporting up for a much needed rest. There was nothing new to report, except for a plasma storm which suddenly popped up out of nowhere scaring half the away team into hiding out in caves for two hours and shuddering when they found themselves crawling with bugs. Now that the storm was over, they headed back to the transport sight and began inspections of one another so there would be no accident like before. With nothing on them, they transported up and the relief crew transported down with the warning of the storm and caves.

Lieutenant B'Elanna Torres fell to the bed exhausted after searching for anything that might look like the spider, but it seemed that every single spider disappeared when they searched for them. Groaning into the pillow, she turned around and sat back up and went to the shower wanting to relax and go right to sleep, but something was still nagging her; what if the spider was on the ship and not on the planet like everyone thought? Laughing it off shakily, she stepped into the soni - shower and stood there thinking of new ways to track the spider down, but nothing came up except those images of the creepy bugs crawling over her during the storm. Twenty minutes later, she went back into her living room and made her report to Captain Janeway. Yawning loudly, she stood up and stretched her tired muscles and went to sleep, still thinking about the spider that got away.

Commander Chakotay was lying on the bio bed with his hands behind his head looking around with his eight beady eyes and squeaking loudly every so often when Lieutenant Harry Kim walked in for a headache remedy, but when he saw Chakotay he froze.

"I can't believe Tom's afraid of him" Harry whispered to himself as he slowly walked his way to one of the bio beds surrounding the far wall and sat down waiting for Doc to come out and fix him quick so he could get out of there fast. Looking around, he wondered where Doc was and said.

"Computer, activate the EMH Program."

"EMH is offline" the computers female unemotional voice responded calmly. Harry stood up quickly and went to the computer terminal looking up the Doc's program; seeing nothing wrong he asked the computer,

"Is someone doing a diagnostic on his program?" the calm voice answered immediately,

"Negative." Scratching his black haired head in confusion he called up Engineering

"Kim to Engineering. Something's wrong with the Doc's program. The computer says he's offline and no ones doing a diagnostic." There was nothing but static over the communications link and Harry was getting pretty scared now. He was so focused over the task of finding the problems with the com link and doc's program that he never noticed Chakotay getting up from his bed and slowly advancing on him.

"Computer, run a self diagnostics on the EMH program." Harry ordered as he tapped commands into the terminal in front of him.

"Diagnostic will take ten minutes to complete." The computer answered as the commander advanced and stopped right behind Harry, antenna swishing through the air like flies around a corpse. Harry must of felt something touch him though, because he froze up and stood stock still, fingers still on the terminal in front of him as he took a slow deep breath and shook his head,

"Now I'm getting the creeps" he muttered to himself as he began working again, trying to figure out what went wrong.

Chakotay stood behind Harry not knowing why he was doing so and grabbed him by the throat pulling him away from the terminal and dragging the rigid form to the supply room.

"Wha?" Harry asked just before the hypo spray went into his neck and he lost consciousness. He dropped him on the ground and looked down and suddenly felt horrible about this, but then the other part took over and he ripped the communicator off the unconscious body and went about hiding him. Slipping him into the cargo container which he had hid there right after taking the crewman's body, he stuffed him in and went about to getting ready to act normal by lying back on the bio bed and pretending to go to sleep.

_Skittering over the catwalk, the spider half of the creature now lying in sickbay waiting for a new victim was trying to get to the engineering section and making a message somehow for Captain Janeway to find. He/it knew it would be a miracle if anyone figured out what the message was about, but it was his only choice as it finally found his way to the terminal and began crawling inside it to play with the wires and isolineor chips that would help him in his quest. Taking his legs and pulling gently on one chip, he managed to get it loose and heard the familiar beep which usually followed a malfunction. Skirting away from the panel now, he waited until legs appeared and hopped into the cuff, hoping the crewman would go somewhere he wanted to go; like the Bridge or maybe even the Mess hall. _

"Ensign Kim, report to the Bridge" came Lieutenant Commander Tuvok's voice over the comm. link as the ship was hit by an unknown vessel that came out of nowhere and started attacking. There was no answer and that got Captain Janeway's attention as she stood in front of Tom at the helm and watched the vessel cruise past for another attack. Cocking her head to one side, she called out,

"Computer, where is Ensign Harry Kim?" she waited for the computer to answer her and what she got surprised her completely,

"Ensign Harry Kim is not on the ship" everyone's head shot toward the ceiling and Tuvok ran a sensor sweep of the ship and confirmed what the computer already stated; he was missing.

"Tuvok, get security to Sickbay and see if anything's amiss down there. Also find out what happened to Harry, I have a feeling something's strange is going on. Tom evasive maneuvers, let's try to loose our quests." The Bridge went into action as everyone did their job, waiting for another attack which never came as the ship disappeared off the screen and sensors. Janeway moved back to the command area and ordered scans and damage reports. All was quiet as the reports came in; nothing, no damage what so ever. There weren't even ships in the area to hit them, nothing for at least three light-years.

"Captain, I'm getting a report form Engineering; it seemed there was a problem with the sensors which was only found two minutes ago. The ship we encountered wasn't there at all. It was a 'Phantom ship' as you would call it. They have fixed the problem. Also, there is no sign of Ensign Kim anywhere on board." Tuvok reported five minutes later as they settled back into orbit around Suvian and continued the search party.

"Thank you Tuvok, I'll be going down there myself, inform the Doctor." Janeway replied as she stood up and headed for the lift. Nodding his head, he looked up suddenly and exclaimed in his calm voice,

"The Doctor is off-line. I can not reach him." Tapping her combadge Janeway ordered,

"Well, let's put the ship on yellow alert just in case we find something we won't like. I'll be in sickbay if you need me. Janeway to engineering, B'Elanna meet me in Sickbay."

The grumpy voice of B'Elanna rang out,

"On my way Captain; Torres out." Nodding to Tuvok she turned the Bridge over to him and walked in to solve the mystery.

In sickbay, B'Elanna watched as Janeway walked in looking confused about something. She knew what of course and said,

" The sensor problem was easy to fix; it was a lose isolinear chip. Someone tampered with the Doc's program, put a lot of useless algorithms in and it overloaded the holo circuits. It'll take a couple hours at least to fix, but Captain, I found this under the console." She handed over the smashed communicator to Janeway, who hefted it in her hand and frowned. Looking closely at it, she eyed Chakotay, who was sleeping soundly and said,

"Any ideas about what did this? It looks like someone stepped on it. Who's is it?" B'Elanna shook her head and sighed as she followed her captain's glance. Looking back, she tapped more commands into the console and answered quietly,

"It's Harry's sir. It also has the commander's DNA on it. I think there's something going on, something very strange." Janeway nodded and slowly put the ruined comm. Badge on the terminal and stated,

"I'll get a search party out for him; he has to be here somewhere. Get on the problem and fill me in when you have Doc running again." Under her breath, she added so only B'Elanna could here,

"I'll have guards posted in sickbay, incase anything happens."

"Yes sir." B'Elanna answered nodding her head in understanding. Janeway walked around to Doc's office and noticed the mobile emitter missing also, and made a mental note to include it in her report. Taking her time, she walked slowly around to Chakotay and took a good long look at him. His head was on it's side as if he was in deep sleep, but somehow she knew better; hands on his chest crossed over like a 'X 'and his feet straight. He almost looked like he was dead, you couldn't see his chest rise or fall, but every so often a little squeak would erupt form his lips?.


	3. Chapter 3

Title: Spikotay

Rating: PG-13 - R

Codes: J, C

Author: Voyager

Part 3/3

Disclaimer: Everything is owned by Paramount, I'm just having some fun; no infringement intended.

Summary: Beaming up to Voyager leaves Chakotay in a sticky situation

Authors note: There is some violence in this part; and also some character death, not major characters though.

Continued from Part two

Ensign Samantha Wildman strolled into the Mess hall for a late supper, even though it was only 2100 and found Neelix messing around in the galley. Stopping in front of the counter, she peered over it and tried to hide a smile that crept on her face as Neelix popped into her line of view and said boisterously,

"Hello, Ensign, what can I get you this fine evening?"

"Hello Neelix, thanks for tucking Naomi into bed for me; I was just too busy. What do you have?" Neelix waved off the thank you; his fur dancing in the slight breeze the motion made.

"No need to thank me, you know I want to spend more time with her. Tonight I have made a delicious Leola Root stew with a side order of salad." Smiling a fake smile Sam ordered the meal, grimacing inside as the nauseous smell hit her nose and thanked Neelix. Turning around, she made her way to one of the many empty tables and sat down and began to eat, holding her breath with every mouthful. Just as she was finished with the stew, she noticed a painful itch on her shin and bent down to scratch it. As she lowered her hand, she felt something tickle her palm and shuddered instinctively. Scratching her shin, she felt something crawl on her hand and froze. Shaking slightly Sam bent her head down and saw something which made her skin crawl. The blue spider which everyone was looking for was sitting on her palm, looking up at her with eight beady eyes and antenna twitching furiously.

"Neelix" Sam spoke in a shaky voice, trying not to scream as the spider crawled on her uniform and seemed to look up at her even more, as if it recognized her somehow. Neelix, who was in the back cleaning his pots and pans, didn't hear her say his name, but looked up in time to see her face go a nasty shade of white and her hand that wasn't holding her fork shake. Moving to her as fast as he could he saw what was causing her to shake and said in a shaky voice,

"Um, I'll get Captain Janeway. Put the spider in your glass and cover it up quickly. I mean, put Commander Chakotay in the cup and cover it, yes that's, that's what I meant." Tapping his combadge with enough force to hurt his chest, he squealed out in a scared voice,

"Neelix to Captain Janeway" it took only a minute for her to respond, and when she did, she sounded a bit harassed,

"Yes Neelix, what is it?"

"Uhh, Sir, I think Ensign Wildman found what everyone is looking for"

"Neelix?" was the confused reply.

"You are looking for something with eight legs, eight eyes and that is blue right? Well, it's right here in the mess hall." His voice was still slightly shaky, but under control now as he heard the unmistakable sounds of jogging footsteps as Janeway answered slightly winded,

"I'm on my way. Keep it there Neelix."

"Yes sir, Neelix out" turning back to Sam, who had now put the spider in her empty cup and was holding the top carefully he nodded his head and went over to the counter where he took a cover from one of his smaller pots and gave it to Sam, who immediately covered it better just as Janeway stormed into the room with Tuvok at her heals and took in the situation as she stopped in front of them. Sam was shaking slightly, trying not to faint; Neelix was a little off color and was fiddling with his apron.

"Neelix, where is it?" Janeway asked as she looked from him to Sam. Neelix pointed to Sam, who still was holding the container and stated,

"In there captain; I've punched air holes so it wouldn't die." Nodding to Tuvok, the Vulcan immediately ran a scan over the cup and said without emotion

"It is the spider. I can detect some other DNA in its DNA structure; it is the commander's Captain." Breathing a huge sigh of relief, Janeway took the container from Sam, who thanked her and walked out of the mess hall without saying anything to either of them, making her way to sickbay.

Once in Sickbay, Captain Janeway immediately called for a level three force field around the commanders' bed and set about putting the spider into a container which would be more appropriate for the situation. B'Elanna, who was still hard at work trying to put the Doctors program together, looked up when she stormed in and asked,

"You found him?" shaking her red hair in annoyance Janeway said as she ran scans over Chakotay's body,

"More like Ensign Wildman found him, inside her pant leg. Now, if only we had the Doc's program up and running again, we could solve this mystery." Smiling wildly, B'Elanna looked up as she hit one more button on the console said to the room,

"Computer, activate EMH" he shimmered into appearance, wearing his blue uniform and looking quite perturbed as he turned to look at her,

"Please state the nature of the medical emergency… Oh Captain, did you find the pesky little guy?" nodding her head in exasperation Janeway stopped what she was doing and turned to look at him with her death glare in place,

"No Doctor, someone else found him, in her cuff of her pants. Now what happened to you?"

"I don't know captain; one minute I was running tests on the commander, when suddenly, I went off line. Why is there security in here? Has something happened?" nodding her head, Janeway answered pointing towards Chakotay,

"Yes Doctor, something has happened. We have reason to believe that the commander shut down your program by adding useless information, shorting out your program; doing something to Ensign Kim and Gods know what else. They are here for our protection and his also." Doc's jaw dropped in shock as he took in all this information and stated,

"How could he do all that? He doesn't even have his mind anymore; it's the spiders mind inside his body. And what's this about Ensign Kim? Last I heard Ensign Kim was in his quarters." Waving her hand in a 'forget it' gesture, B'Elanna strolled over to him and said,

"Don't worry about it Doc, we have everything under control. Captain, I should go to Engineering, see if I can do anything there that would help find Harry." Janeway nodded her head and she left taking one last look over her shoulder at Chakotay, who was now up and looking around at the force field.

Harry woke up in a cargo container, wondering where the hell he was and why he was there. He couldn't move at all, and there was a horrible stench surrounding him. Moving his hand up to his chest, he tried to hit his combadge, but there was nothing to hit, except his own skin. It was pitch black in there; he couldn't see anything, but he did feel something, something that felt like blood seeping through a wound and sticking to him like glue.

"Hello?" he tried to shout out, but nothing happened except a small hissing breath. Trying not to panic now, he tried again, louder this time while he banged hard on the inside of the container, but to no avail. Thinking hard now, he tried to think of a way out and shifted position to get more maneuvering room so he could reach up and grab a hold of the lid. Reaching up, he grabbed onto something squishy and grimaced; it felt like something dead. Skittering back till he hit the side of the container, which wasn't very far he began pounding with all his strength trying to get someone's attention, hoping he wasn't in the empty cargo bay, where no one would find him.

Meanwhile in Sickbay, where Harry was only five meters away from; Captain Janeway was leaving to make the report and get everyone back from the planet. Commander Chakotay suddenly burst towards the force field, trying to get to Doc, who was sitting in his office, not knowing that there was any sound. The security team however noticed it and were trying to home into the sound by turning their heads sideways and motioning to each other. The one on the left hand side, John, went over to the supply room and noticed the sound had increased. Carefully he went to the lone cargo container and looked closely at it, noticing a slight quiver in it every time the sound came. Motioning to his partner, he took out his phaser and carefully pried open the lid.

"God almighty!" he suddenly shouted as the stench hit him right in the face. Inside the container, the dead crewman shot out as Harry jumped at the sound, making the body land on top of the security officer. Harry feel halfway out, his strength depleted after hammering on the container for twenty minutes straight and passed out again from weakness. Doc ran straight for him, after hearing the officers shout and pulled him onto a bio bed, scanning him with the tricorder.

"Sickbay to Captain Janeway." Doc said as he gave Harry a hypo spray full of vitamins. Meanwhile, the other Security guard was pulling John to his feet, trying not to touch the dead body that was on top of him.

"Janeway here. What is it Doctor?"

"Ensign Kim is in Sickbay; it seemed he was here all along, locked inside a cargo container with the body of Crewman Groal. He's okay, just fainted from exertion. I might need more security here, things may get messy." He answered as Chakotay slammed into the force field again, this time almost making it. There were animal sounds coming out of his mouth as he landed back on the bed, chest heaving from effort.

"They're on their way Doctor. What ever you do, do not turn off the force field, he is dangerous. Keep me posted, Janeway out." Doc went over to the crewman and ran a scan over his dead, creamy body; it was if his body was melted. Checking his tricorder, he froze; turning to John, the security guard who the body landed on, he grabbed him by the arm and tossed him onto a bed, grabbing a hypo spray and saying,

"He died from acid; it looks like you are infected now too. I've never seen this kind before; I might have to put you in stasis, until I can find the solution. Don't worry; I've caught it just in time." John looked terrified as he heard this, but nodded in understanding when Doc administered the hypo, therefore putting him to sleep, before moving his body to the stasis chamber and placing him in there. The other security moved into position around the force filed, keeping a close eye on Chakotay, who was trying even harder to get through.

"Computer, change level of force field to level ten." Doc ordered as the field shimmered for three dangerous seconds before going hard again. Now sure of the strength of the field, Doc went back into his lab and began making an antidote for John hoping he could before it was too late.

Now, with nothing to do but wait for the results from his experiment Doc went towards the spider which was sitting in the container and looked at it closely. It looked harmless; deep blue color with little dots of light blue mixed around its body. Little beady eyes turned upward when he came close to it; almost as if it recognized him somehow. Taking his tricorder, Doc manipulated the controls to emit a low frequency squeak to imitate the speech pattern of the spider and asked it questions. The experiment was to see if it was truly Commander Chakotay's mind inside the tiny little creature, and what he got surprised him. The spider answered back with a high pitch squeak causing the other half of him; commander Chakotay who was lying on the floor now getting his strength back to look up at the guards and hiss.

"Hmm, it seems that the spider can communicate with us by squeaking sounds emitted through its lips. Also, when emitted, the commanders' body reacts by hissing and spitting. I am going to ask the spider, which appears to have the commanders mind what happened to them, and how we can change them back." Tapping the buttons again, he squealed out the question and got back an answer almost immediately. Putting the information into the universal translator, he got a mechanical answer back,

"I do not know, I was on the planet, there was a problem with the transporter and the next thing I knew I was in the body of a spider and was trying to get a message to Captain Janeway." Now that he had the translator working, Doc asked out loud,

"Do you have any idea how we can change you back, without killing you or the spider?" two seconds later a reply was heard, echoing through the office,

"How about going through the transporter again? You would have to get me onto my body though and from what I can see, that may be a problem." nodding slightly, Doc agreed that it would, but first he would have to try it through the Holodeck to make sure it would work.

"I will need to run simulations in the Holodeck first to make sure it could work. There is one problem though; you, the spider part will have to be on the exact part of your body in order for this to work, it could take some time. I will get back to you soon" placing the container on a high shelf, he went to work contacting Captain Janeway with his findings and requesting help with making the simulation on the Holodeck.

Seven hours later, Tom Paris walked out of the Holodeck after running the simulation non stop, trying to figure out where the spider would be on Chakotay's' body at the time of transport. He was shaking all over after standing next to Holo Chakotay and watching as Doc placed the bug on a different apart of him each time, trying to find the one spot which would get the commanders mind back into his body and get the dangerous spiders back in its. Finally after enough time for Tom to stay away from the Holodecks for at least a week, they figured out where the spider was. Walking out with the Doc in toll behind him, Tom tapped his combadge to report their findings to Captain Janeway.

"Paris to Janeway"

"Janeway here, what did you find?" Tom took a deep cleansing breath then spoke,

"We know where the spider was when he transported up, and after much consideration, we feel confident that if we place the spider in the exact spot and transport them to the planet and back again, it would work. Of course there will be security around him to make sure the spider gets off." There was silence for a few seconds as Janeway thought of everything, than she responded with a hint of pride in her voice.

"Good job Tom. Get to work on it immediately. We have one problem though; how are we going to get the commanders body onto the platform long enough so he wouldn't hurt anymore of my crew?" Tom entered the lift and said,

"Well, one thing at a tine sir, first we have to place the spider on him, than we can just transport them from Sickbay. Doc will do it, since he's immune to everything, than we'll see what happens."

"Of course Tom. I'll meet you in Sickbay, Janeway out." the link severed and Tom entered Sickbay to see the four extra security surrounding Chakotay. He felt a shiver run through his back bones thinking of what happened to Harry, who was now in his quarters resting. Moving to Doc's office, he picked up the container holding the spider and looked at it closely; now that he thought of it, spiders weren't that bad, if they didn't try to kill his best friends.

"You'll be out of our lives soon enough, you little pest." He spoke in a soft voice. He jumped when the spider answered back through the translator,

"You want to get rid of me Tom?"

"Uh, no commander. Just stay there for another hour and we'll have your mind where it belongs. Stay there." Placing the container on top of the shelf again, he walked away and stood in front of the force field, just as Janeway entered and saw everything as it was when she left. Walking up to Tom, she put a hand on his shoulder watching as he jumped five feet in the air then spun around to see her amused smirk.

"Captain, jeez you scared the heck out of me. I'm just waiting until everything is ready. Doc is in the transporter room, telling B'Elanna what to do." He stammered as he ran a hand through his dirty blonde hair. She smiled warmly and answered with a hint of impatience,

"Good job Tom; I want my first officer back. Okay, let's get this show on the road. Now if only there would be no disruptions while we do this."

"Sir?" Tom asked as they went back to the console and waited for the okay.

"Oh, there is a vessel coming at high warp towards our position, and I would like to get this over with before we engage them, if it comes to that." She explained as the Doctor came back in with a satisfied grin on his face. He walked over to where they were standing and said,

"Okay, everything is ready now."

Everything was set for the commander and the spider. In Sickbay, Doc was just about to place the spider on the commander and order the transport to commence when there was a giant shaking that made the force field shimmer and disappear.

"Red Alert. Captain to the Bridge." rang Tuvok's voice over the ship wide intercom. Janeway hurried out of the room and made her way to the Bridge, just as Chakotay burst through the surgical bay and forced himself onto a security officer who tried to stop him.

Doc pulled on the commanders' arm, hoping to stop him before he did anything to harm anyone, but before he even had a chance, another shake over took them and his program went offline. With nothing stopping him, he latched onto the nearest security guard and bit hard on his neck. Blood spurted everywhere as the guard screamed with agony and fell to the floor, landing on the other guards and Tom, who was grabbing a hypo spray and moving carefully behind Chakotay, hoping to get him unconscious. With an almighty squeal of anger, Chakotay picked up Tom, who almost had him and threw him against the wall, knocking the wind out of him. Tom landed on his back, appalled from the inhuman strength which threw him, trying to get his breathing under control and looked on in horror. Chakotay advanced on the three other guards, who all had their Phasers out and licked his lips, while his antennae dripped with the now dead officers' blood.

"We need more security in Sickbay!" called out one security guard as he shot Chakotay, but missed as he dodged an attack and spin around trying again. He missed again as Chakotay turned around, now advancing on him; arms reaching for his throat and grinning. The guards face paled as he slowly backed up, hitting a bio bed and froze, watching as the hands wrapped around and began squeezing tight, blocking the air from his lungs. Now able to stand without collapsing again, Tom slowly moved behind Chakotay, keeping a close eye on the officer and Chakotay at the same time.

"Chakotay, please, you don't want to do this." Tom said calmly as he moved and stopped behind him, placing the hypo on his neck. It hissed, but didn't have the desired effect that Tom hoped for. Instead, it just made him angrier and he spun around to grab Tom by the throat face inches away from his and squealed. The officer slumped on the bed, back turned at an awkward angle gasping for breath, his chest heaving; face a nasty shade of purple. During all of this, the battle was still raging, ship rocking back and forth as the vessel cut into the shields and penetrated the hull in the lower decks.

Inside the transporter room, B'Elanna was barking orders to Engineering, while trying to get a lock onto Chakotay and the spider. She had Lieutenant Carey fix the holo emitter from Sickbay, and hoped it wasn't too late as the ship rocked again, this time sparks flying from the console in front of her.

"Damn!" she cursed under her breath as it went dead. Tearing open the paneling underneath it, she fixed the problem and tried again, this time only half succeeding. There was a blue shimmer, then the container holding the spider emerged unharmed. Running over to the pad, she picked it up and looked it over; nothing looked wrong with it, so she put it by the console and tried to get Chakotay.

Sickbay was becoming a three ring circus now as every available security officer was there, trying to subdue the commander, who had killed two more officers after tossing Tom again like a little rag doll. It was pandemonium as every single officer was advancing on him, trying to get an edge so they could subdue him and finally finish what was supposed to be an easy thing to do.

"Captain Janeway to the Doctor, what's going on down there?" rang Janeway's voice over the intercom making everyone jump slightly and loose their edge.

"Sir we…we are having…a slight problem getting him to co-operate. The Doc is gone; his emitters were damaged during the attack." Paris replied with a shaky voice as he got up again, grimacing as he felt the broken bones crunch under his weight. Just then, Doc appeared

"Please state the nature of the medical emergency." He looked around and saw every single officer, fighting with the commander, trying to get an edge so they could finish and get him back again to normal.

"Well, I never, here let me help." With that, he strolled over and used the Vulcan nerve pinch. Immediately, Chakotay fell to the floor, asleep and everyone sighed a deep sigh of relief. Picking him up, Doc said

"I'm here Captain; commander Chakotay is now safe for transport. I suggest we do this quickly, I don't know how long we have."

"Understood Doctor. I'll be there shortly. Janeway out." Doc nodded to the security guards that were still standing, then went over and began working on the injured crew. Tom moved over to him and said softly,

"I'm afraid Ensign Hulfs is dead. He was bitten in the neck by Chakotay's fangs and he bled out. Those other ones were strangled." Doc nodded and went about setting the stasis chambers so he could fill out the reports officially when Chakotay was back to normal. He noted the time in the logs though, then set about to go to the transporter room to over see the experiment. Tom limped out of Sickbay and followed as Doc went to the lift and down to the transporter room.

"Okay, lay him on the pads and place the spider wherever it was." B'Elanna ordered as Captain Janeway, Tom, Doc and Tuvok stood around the console, looking over her shoulder as she put the information into the computer. Two security officers who weren't too hurt did as they were told and stood back, each secretly hoping it would work. B'Elanna tapped more instructions into the console and said as she looked up,

"Okay, now Doc, once I place the force field over the pad, you go and place the spider on him, then come back." He nodded smartly and did as he was told; everyone tensed as they saw where it was, on the back of Chakotay's neck, under his uniform jacket. Holding their breath, Doc stood off to the side and waited patiently while B'Elanna commenced the transport. The shimmer glowed around his prone form, dispelling his molecules into the buffer, and disappeared. Next, B'Elanna spread her fingers over the console and watched as the transport took effect again. On one pad laid Chakotay with his head attached, looking pale and dead-like; on the other, with the container bounced an angry spider, its beady eyes looking at them furiously and menacingly. Immediately Doc ran over to the prone figure of Chakotay while everyone waited patiently and scanned him. After five minutes, he looked up and nodded,

"He's back to normal. I'll need to take him to sickbay for further tests though; I'm not sure if he'll remember anything or not." Janeway nodded as the force field was removed and strolled over to him, looking down at Chakotay and said with authority,

"Beam him directly to Sickbay."

"Yes sir." B'Elanna said as she did the job. Two minutes later, they looked over to the container and noticed the spider wasn't moving. Tapping the container, Tom ran a scan of his own and shook his head,

"It's dead Captain, I think the stress of the transporter killed him." Tuvok walked over and picked up the container and stated stoically,

"I will take it to sickbay for further tests. Excuse me Captain" she nodded and he walked out. Janeway broke out into a big wry grin and stated,

"Well, now that this adventure is over, let's get these repairs under way. B'Elanna, you're needed in Engineering. Tom, you should probably go to Sickbay and help Doc with his patients." With that, she turned around and walked out going back to the Bridge and reading the many reports that had added up over the couple of days. Tom and B'Elanna looked to each other, shrugged and walked out hand in hand.

Three days later, Chakotay was sitting up in his bed in sickbay, looking at Doc as he scanned him again one last time when Janeway walked in, saw him and smiled. Stepping closer to him, she smirked at him and said

"Well Commander, you had quite an adventure. How are you feeling?" Chakotay shook his head and shrugged.

"I feel fine. I don't remember much, but from what Doc told me, I did some things which were so unlike me. I'm sorry Captain." She shook it off, put a hand on his shoulder, giving it a gentle squeeze and answered,

"Don't apologize. It wasn't you. We learned everything we needed to learn from the spider. It seemed that all the spiders are dangerous and relentless. They secrete poisonous venom that kills anything upon contact. Fortunately, Doc had found an antidote and saved Harry and the security officer. Both are feeling better and resting in their quarters." He stood up and stretched his large body upwards to get the kinks out of his back and said as they walked out of Sickbay.

"I'm glad to hear that. I would hate to think about what would have happened if Harry died. So what has happened since I've been gone?" laughing at his slight smirk, dimples threatening to come out, Janeway answered as they entered the lift,

"Nothing much. We had a nice battle with a fake vessel; nice job by the way with the isolinear chip. You gave Ensign Wildman quite a scare by climbing in her cuff. While Doc was trying to get you, we had a battle with another of the Delta quadrants fine races."

"Sorry I missed it." Chakotay replied as the lift stopped and they walked out and made their way towards the mess hall for some much needed food. All he wanted to do now was to eat a healthy supper and go to his quarters and sleep for about three days.

The end.


End file.
